My first $50 SNG

[Drzy]

I've been having a lot of success lately and decided to play with the big boys. Here's the tournament in its entirety, shorthand:

*********** # 1 **************
Dealt to Drz81 [2c 3s]
Drz81: folds
(cut cut cut -- nothing interesting)


*********** # 2 **************
Dealt to Drz81 [Ac As]
VegasJay1: raises 80 to 100
Drz81: raises 140 to 240
VegasJay1: calls 140
Everyone else folds

*** FLOP *** [5d Qc 3h]
VegasJay1: checks
Drz81: bets 400
VegasJay1: raises 950 to 1350 and is all-in
Drz81: calls 860 and is all-in
Drz81 reveals [Ac As]
VegasJay1 reveals [Kd 9d]
*** TURN *** 8 of diamonds
*** RIVER *** 4 of diamonds

*** SHOW DOWN ***
VegasJay1: shows [Kd 9d] (a flush, King high)
Drz81: shows [Ac As] (a pair of Aces)
VegasJay1 collected 3030 from pot
scco1999 said, "omg"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3030 | Rake 0
Board [5d Qc 3h 8d 4d]



Why the hell would he try to buy the pot there? I'm still fuming, and it's made all the worse by this being my first time trying a higher limit and that I would've had an extremely excellent chance of finishing in the money. :x :x :x

[Drzy]

Welp, just tried my first $100 SnG


*********** # 1 **************
PokerStars Game #324796209: Tournament #1152387, Hold'em No Limit -
Level II (15/30) - 2004/03/08 - 18:14:41 (ET)
Table '1152387 1' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: IZALEGEND (710 in chips)
Seat 2: SW JACKSON (1610 in chips)
Seat 3: treynsx (2390 in chips)
Seat 4: Drz81 (1865 in chips)
Seat 6: myran (2915 in chips)
Seat 7: hamsterboy (1155 in chips)
Seat 8: DrShrinker (1425 in chips)
Seat 9: -M1- (1430 in chips)
Drz81: posts small blind 15
myran: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Drz81 [Qh Td]
hamsterboy: folds
DrShrinker: folds
-M1-: folds
IZALEGEND: folds
SW JACKSON: folds
treynsx: folds
Drz81: raises 30 to 60
myran: raises 90 to 150
Drz81: calls 90
*** FLOP *** [4s Ts 8c]
Drz81: bets 150
myran: calls 150
*** TURN *** [4s Ts 8c] [Tc]
Drz81: bets 600
myran: calls 600
*** RIVER *** [4s Ts 8c Tc] [6c]
Drz81: bets 965 and is all-in
myran: calls 965
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Drz81: shows [Qh Td] (three of a kind, Tens)
myran: shows [Ac Qc] (a flush, Ace high)
myran collected 3730 from pot


Not a bad beat like the other one, but still pisses me off all the same. :x :x :x

[CAPTAIN_MORGAN]

MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T GAMBLE IF IT MAKES YOU SO ANGRY.

YOU GOTTA STOP BEING SO ANGRY. HAVE A COLD GOLD CAPTAIN MORGAN GOLD AND CHILL OUT BRO. HARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

[Bama Gambler]

First one was VERY unlucky. I don't know WTF that guy was thinking. He must have just watched the WPT and thought he could bluff at any pot.

The second one you should have folded preflop. Not worth trying to steal 30. QT can lose you a lot of money and is not likely to make you much money. When everyone folded to you then you needed to fold as well. If 3 players had limped then you could call the extra 15.

[Voter]

First one's a bad beat. Amazing the idiots even at $50.

Second one - it's only level two, you have third stack out of 8, all the time in the world to wait for good cards, or pick on little guys - and you challenge the big stack with QTo??? Sorry dude, but you should only be angry with yourself on this one.

Also, now that you're in the hand - why bet moderate when you make trips, then all-in when the potential flush hits? All-in on the turn, he might fold. Or after a moderate bet on the turn, how about checking the river? With a pair on board and a decent pot already, he might check or bet lightly, and you're still in the game.

[Drzy]

I do think I should've folded it preflop, but I called with the intention of laying down if I caught nothing and maybe trapping if I did. I wouldn't call my turn bet "modest" ... the reason I didn't go all-in on the turn was because I was afraid it would get him to fold. I felt I had the best hand and there was little chance of his getting better than mine.

I rarely think about the backdoor flush when it's down to two players. I saw that it was a possibility when that final flush card hit, but I figured nah, odds are too low. The thought of "boy it sure would suck to lose to a backdoor flush again" crept in my mind, but it didn't stop me from trying to chase him away.

If I had checked and he put me all in, I probably wouldn't have had the discipline to not call, not with trips and my feeling that I most likely have the best hand.

[Bama Gambler]

If I had checked and he put me all in, I probably wouldn't have had the discipline to not call, not with trips and my feeling that I most likely have the best hand.In that case you should definitly check-call the river. Think about it this way. If you bet then he will likely call only if he has you beat, but if you check he may bluff when you have him beat. So if you are willing to call his all-in go ahead and check the river.

[Drzy]

That makes good sense... my bets could certainly be interpreted as the kind that were just trying to buy the pot, and a check on the river would make it seem like that was definitely the case. The end result would be the same for this hand, but for other hands in similar situations I'll definitely keep this in mind.

[Sotally Tober]

QTo is a marginal hand to begin with, like Bama said, one that can get you into trouble, easy to make second best hand. And if you know that you have trouble getting away from hands, they're even more marginal. More marginal? Does that it make it junk? Perhaps. Probably. It just doesn't seem worth it so early. Limp-in with a few callers and get some pot odds, maybe. It's hard to convince yourself that this not a hand you want to play consistently.

And maybe it's my conservative nature but when I see 2 suited cards out there and I have trips, it's all-in, virtually every time. I won't risk being outdrawn cheaply or even for a moderate bet. He pays the price and catches, fine. He gambled, he won. I can even understand why people gamble in spots like that (the turn, in this case). I can get over that. I can understand the 150 call on the flop. He has 2 overcards to the board. My question is, does that bet of 600 on the turn "convince" him you have trips? I don't know. And for that reason, I want him to know it. He'll have to catch to win. The turn bet of 600 still left him at 2,000...enough to continue comfortably if he doesn't catch and has to fold, in a great spot if he does catch. Setting him all-in at the turn, once you've decided to play this hand and didn't fold pre-flop, and making think of being at 1,000-1,050 unless he catches is entirely different.

[Sotally Tober]

the reason I didn't go all-in on the turn was because I was afraid it would get him to fold.

Greedy. It's OK to win pots that aren't as big as you'd like when the flip-side is you're gone. Besides, doesn't his call of the turn bet basically tell you he must be drawing to a flush? What else would make him call there? If he had a big pp, he'd likely have let you know earlier, like on the flop to prevent you from drawing to a flush.

Of course, we've all done that a time or two, huh? :D